At Home in Europe

In establishing Wacker Chemie Nederland B.V. – our first non-German subsidiary – in 1972, we laid the foundation for tapping European markets. Now, over 40 years later, we have no hesitation in calling Europe our home market, where we are the leader in silicon chemistry and ethylene-based polymer products – a position we intend to keep in the future.

Annual Report 2014

Household Goods

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Household Goods

Putting the fun into baking … ELASTOSIL® is one of WACKER’s most successful brands and stands for a broad range of high-quality silicone products. Silicone rubber grades are heat-resistant and have a neutral taste and odor. This makes them ideal for producing, for example, colorful baking molds that just shrug off sticky or burned food residues.

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Household Goods

Putting the fun into baking … ELASTOSIL® is one of WACKER’s most successful brands and stands for a broad range of high-quality silicone products. Silicone rubber grades are heat-resistant and have a neutral taste and odor. This makes them ideal for producing, for example, colorful baking molds that just shrug off sticky or burned food residues.

Provisions for Personnel

These include obligations for anniversary payments and funeral expenses as well as provisions for early-retirement and phased-early-retirement plans. There is a continuous outflow of noncurrent provisions for anniversary payments and of provisions for phased-early-retirement plans.

Sales/Purchasing Provisions

These provisions cover warranty and product-liability obligations, as well as discounts, cash bonuses and other price reductions still to be granted, commissions payable to sales agents, and contingent losses from contractual agreements. The major portion of provisions will probably be used for payouts in the coming year.

Provisions for Environmental Protection

Provisions for environmental protection are created for anticipated obligations regarding contaminated-site remediation, water pollution control, recultivation of landfills, the clean-up of contaminated storage and production sites, and similar environmental measures. These provisions also include environmental protection charges likely to be imposed by government bodies. The additions are mainly attributable to the adjustments made to the actuarial interest rate. The noncurrent provisions for environmental protection are likely to be utilized within a period of 25 years.

Restructuring Provisions

The provisions for restructuring comprise severance payments for departing employees, anticipated site closure expenses, demolition obligations and similar charges.

Sundry Provisions

These provisions are formed for a multiplicity of identifiable individual risks and contingencies (e.g. damages, reimbursement claims).

As in the previous year, the interest rates ranged between 0.5 percent and 10 percent, depending on the situation in the individual countries. They primarily related to provisions associated with purchasing, environmental provisions, provisions for phased-early-retirement plans and anniversary-payment provisions.

Tax Provisions

Tax provisions contain amounts for current income tax obligations as well as for risks from tax audits and legal action. The existing noncurrent tax provisions will largely be utilized over the next two to four years.